Hi, all.

My two kids just love Star Wars Lego, and in truth, so do I, but there is a a couple of things about them that really take the p**s.

Take Christmas, for example. It was a coin toss between the Hoth AT-AT battle set and the Endor shield generator set. The AT-AT was supposed to be £100, down to £80 and the Endor set supposed to be £80 down to £75.

The Endor set has 890 pieces with 12 minifigures
The AT-AT set has 815 pieces with 8 minifigures

The Endor set is noticeably heavier- I mean at least half as heavy again- and yet it is supposed to be £20 less than the AT-AT.

And then there is something else entirely. Yesterday, we went to Toys R Us again. This time, it was to get a Republic Swamp Speeder- 176 pieces and 5 minifigures. It was down from £40 to £30 and (on Amazon) can still be found for £45!! Let me say that again- 176 pieces. It took all of about 45 minutes to build.

The Speeder from Episode 4 is only 163 pieces and 6 figures and can be bought for around £25, so where does £15 for 13 pieces come in??

At the same time, my son bought the Republic Attack Shuttle. 636 pieces and 3 figures. It took him most of this morning to build and actually looks like it's worth something like the £50 it cost.

How the hell do they figure out these prices?

Not of least importance in this day and age is the packaging. The Swamp Speeder was in a box around 38cm long and about 26cm wide.It would fit- ASSEMBLED- in a box less than 20 cm along each side, and in pieces, a medium sized Jiffy envelope!!

These days it's all about "brand management". They figure you're prepared to pay more for an AT-AT than an Ewok, so they charge more for it.

As for the box, if it looks premium, then you'll be more prepared to pay a premium price for it.

I did wonder about how much easier or harder it is to design a certain model, but to me, that isn't relevant. It can't cost all that much more and although you have to design and set to match a particular Star Wars vehicle (etc.) it can't be much harder than designing something tangible from scratch, IMHO.

Another thing occurs to me. The Swamp Speeder has two seats for Clone Troopers, but it only comes with one clone and yet three Battle Droids. This pattern is repeated throughout the range with vehicles rarely having anything like enough Clone Troopers for a single vehicle, let alone any to spare as infantry. To include droids in the pack when there aren't enough clones is also taking the mickey.

It's no wonder that individual Clone Troopers are selling for ridiculous prices on ebay.

I love me some Lego, but the prices are often ridiculous - I can buy a much more 'involved' smaller Technic set for the same price as a truly basic Lego vehicle, for instance

Ebay where at least you have the odd chance of snagging a bargain.

http://shop.lego.com/ByTheme/Product.as ... S=mod3img2

I need to move out!

The best part about that, is £102 each and a limit of 5 per customer.

Actually, I think that there is something going on with not only Lego Star Wars but Batman and other popular Lego themes.

Sets that cost around £100 are now being sold by retailers not private sellers for around £300.

The Ultimate Collector Series models, selling in the region of £250 to £300 are now being sold- again by retailers in some cases- for over £1,000.

Perhaps some are buying these even at retail price when they come out, just to hang onto them for a couple of years before selling them on.

Some sets which used to sell for around £10 can be found for around £30 but the more expensive sets are too far out of reach. As a result, I just bought the Tantive IV this week as it is becoming very hard to find at close to its original retail price.

Lego need to start selling some of these older kits otherwise they will lose out. Selling them for a limited period is in my opinion a mistake.

Ah, the vagaries of selling 'toys'. Size isn't everything (apparently)

Chap at work is selling a Star Wars Lego bundle that includes:

A-Wing Fighter
Bounty Hunter Set of Two Speeders
AT-RT Scout Walker
Hoth Rebel Trooper Battle Pack.......

all for the princely sum of £50. Any good? Should I declare my interest or wait for further price reductions???

Al

Well have a look on eBay to see what the going prices are and if it is a decent discount then buy. If you want for a bigger discount he might decide that he has cut it enough and so will sell on eBay if no one is interested.

A-Wing Fighter- Lego 6207 (2006) was £9.99 and can be bought new at Amazon for £52. I wouldn't want the original A-Wing from 2001

Hoth Rebel Trooper Battle Pack- 8083 (still available) £9.99

I'm not sure on the AT-RT. If you mean the AT-ST then there are two.

7657 (2007) was £19.99 and can be found from £50 to £70 plus. 7172 (2001) is another, pretty poor early model.

There is also the Ultimate Collectors Series AT-ST which was £58 new and can be found for less than £85.

I am not sure on the "speeders"

All in all, if you don't want it, I'll have them.